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MintPPC project

Jeroen Diederen said:
Hi, nice that you would like to try this guide. As you correctly pointed out, Debian now installs Grub as bootloader instead of yaboot. The problem is, that Grub cannot boot your Leopard partition. You either have to boot Leopard using the alt key, which shows you the option to boot OSX, or to manually install yaboot over grub. In the latter case you can choose OSX or Linux from yaboot.

If you are going to try to install yaboot over grub, and you succeed, please tell me how you did it. I will add it to that guide then.
Click to expand...
Ok, thank you! I'll probably just keep it simple and not try to install yaboot over grub but, should I ever attempt it and succeed, I'll be sure to let you know. :)
 
Ok, so I tried installing MintPPC on my SLSD and it failed when installing the software at 97% when it read "Cleaning Up" on the status bar. I'm trying again for good measure, but is there anything you'd recommend I try should this problem keep occurring?
 
Ok, an update: It installed successfully! Doing the first boot now :D

Edit: It works, but there's no keyboard or mouse support. I can use external keyboards and mice just fine however. do you know a fix for this?
 
Last edited:
Jeroen Diederen said:
Very strange, never had this before. Did you setup keyboard during installation?
As root:
dpkg-reconfigure keyboard-configuration

Keyboard - Debian Wiki

wiki.debian.org wiki.debian.org
Click to expand...
I did, but I can try again next time I do work on it. Thanks! :)

APT aslo reported it couldn't find the
Code: 
debian-system-adjustments
package, so I was unable to make the system Mint, do you know why/have a .deb file I can use?
 
Jeroen Diederen said:
what is the output of
Code: 
cat /etc/apt/sources.list
?
Click to expand...
Here's the output of that:
Code: 
# 

# deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 10.0 _Sid_ - Unofficial powerpc NETINST 20200419-15:26]/ sid main

#deb cdrom:[Debian GNU/Linux 10.0 _Sid_ - Unofficial powerpc NETINST 20200419-15:26]/ sid main

deb http://deb.debian.org/debian-ports/ sid main non-free contrib
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian-ports/ unreleased main
deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian-ports/ sid main non-free contrib
# 'unreleased' does not support sources yet
# deb-src http://deb.debian.org/debian-ports/ unreleased main

# This system was installed using small removable media
# (e.g. netinst, live or single CD). The matching "deb cdrom"
# entries were disabled at the end of the installation process.
# For information about how to configure apt package sources,
# see the sources.list(5) manual.

I also tried reconfiguring the keyboard and that didn't change anything.
 
Jeroen Diederen said:
Something must have gone wrong. You installed plain Debian, as I don't see a MintPPC entry in the sources.list file. Did you follow the installation instructions ?
Click to expand...
Yeah, I tried to at least. I did a manual installation because the preseed file for the automatic install didn't look like it was doing anything when I used it. I do realize now that it probably was doing stuff however >.>

Looking at the cfg file however, it looks like I can add the repos needed.
 
Hello, ive got a powebook g4, tried the live usb install (dd to internal drive) only one problem, the system wont detect a bootable drive, i can boot into the drive however with openfirmware but i would rather not have to type a command just to boot the machine
 
Linux_legend said:
Hello, ive got a powebook g4, tried the live usb install (dd to internal drive) only one problem, the system wont detect a bootable drive, i can boot into the drive however with openfirmware but i would rather not have to type a command just to boot the machine
Click to expand...
The boot picker also wont detect the drive
 
Linux_legend said:
Hello, ive got a powebook g4, tried the live usb install (dd to internal drive) only one problem, the system wont detect a bootable drive, i can boot into the drive however with openfirmware but i would rather not have to type a command just to boot the machine
Click to expand...
Linux_legend said:
The boot picker also wont detect the drive
Click to expand...
Yeah, that's just how most PowerPC Macs work with USB. I've gathered some G3 systems are able to see USB drives in the boot picker, but that's it. There's no way around it, that's why CD-R is recommended, you don't have to jump through those hoops like that.
 
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repairedCheese said:
Yeah, that's just how most PowerPC Macs work with USB. I've gathered some G3 systems are able to see USB drives in the boot picker, but that's it. There's no way around it, that's why CD-R is recommended, you don't have to jump through those hoops like that.
Click to expand...
Sorry, i shouldve stated, its already installed onto the harddrive, ive dd'd the image to the internal harddrive 4 partitions, but after a reboot, the machine just says no boot drive, or that folder icon thingie, i just want to know how to tell it to load grub at boot. Also, i can boot to the internal drive with hd:2,\grub within open firmware so i know its good, i just dont know how to get it to load grub at boot
 
Linux_legend said:
Sorry, i shouldve stated, its already installed onto the harddrive, ive dd'd the image to the internal harddrive 4 partitions, but after a reboot, the machine just says no boot drive, or that folder icon thingie, i just want to know how to tell it to load grub at boot. Also, i can boot to the internal drive with hd:2,\grub within open firmware so i know its good, i just dont know how to get it to load grub at boot
Click to expand...
Well then. So, I take it you didn't install the bootloader. I don't really have experience with GRUB on PowerPC, but you do need to create a bootloader partition on the same drive, and then you need to install it there.

Unfortunately, the boot picker doesn't understand Linux. I'm pretty sure the install instructions cover this somewhere.
 
I recently pulled my old Powerbook G4 out of storage and wanted to get a linux up and running on it. After trying many, many things I stumbled onto this thread. Thinking that a distro that supported PPC and had activity as recently as a few months ago sounded perfect, I decided to give MintPPC a try.

If I try to open MintPPC.nl on any machine or browser, I get an error instead of a web page. Is there any word on when the project will be back up?
 
Interesting. I was able to open the site on my tablet, but on my primary machine I get the response:

An error occurred during a connection to www.u58733p55594.web0093.zxcs-klant.nl. SSL received a record that exceeded the maximum permissible length.

Error code: SSL_ERROR_RX_RECORD_TOO_LONG
Click to expand...

However, it must be an issue on my machine so I'll track that down. Thanks!
 
yesterday i managed to install MintPPC on a PowerBook G4 667MHz by following the comment by Thomas Carlson, January 30, 2021 at 9:30 pm...

Grub problem – MintPPC

www.u58733p55594.web0093.zxcs-klant.nl

So debian-10.0-powerpc-NETINST-1.iso from 19apr2020 is the one and i burned it to a USB stick.
Then booted the G4 with ALT key.
When Debian is up and running continue by installing MintPPC manually like here... https://www.u58733p55594.web0093.zxcs-klant.nl/installation/manual-installation-mintppc/

i also had to do...
sudo apt install lxsession
after installing MintPPC to avoid the login crash loop.

good luck,
_f
 
Hello, I tried to install this today on my G4 Mini and it made it through the entire installation but failed to install grub at the very end:
E0B0C332-481B-4BAF-9D41-FDB057C17081.jpeg

FED15D98-26D2-4F91-9D24-0ADDA319D7E8.jpeg


I believe my partitions were correct so I'm not sure what went wrong. Is there a way to boot directly from open firmware or is it necessary to install grub?
ACAF5C6F-8B9A-4789-BA79-1D540312F59F.jpeg
 
CJRhoades said:
Hello, I tried to install this today on my G4 Mini and it made it through the entire installation but failed to install grub at the very end
Click to expand...
What image did you use exactly? I remember that happened to me maybe 2 years ago, when Debian switched to GRUB but this one was buggy on PPC.
With a recent debian image, I installed it on a G5 model but it failed on Mac Mini with error "Invalid memory access" booting the installer kernel.
 
code38 said:
What image did you use exactly? I remember that happened to me maybe 2 years ago, when Debian switched to GRUB but this one was buggy on PPC.
With a recent debian image, I installed it on a G5 model but it failed on Mac Mini with error "Invalid memory access" booting the installer kernel.
Click to expand...
The 32 bit one from the installation instruction page on the mintppc.nl website.

 
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